The Big Mess
by Lily Hanson
Summary: Mentor Ji's gone on a retreat, and the Rangers learn to relax a little too much. It gets so bad, one Ranger snaps. Oneshot following Struggle For Power


Three days. Mentor Ji had been gone on his retreat for three days and it looked like a tornado had ripped through the house. Actually, if the resident tornado had ripped through, the house wouldn't look the way it did. The wind Samurai was extremely frustrated with her living conditions.

She was picking up sweaty towels from the ground, collecting dirty dishes from all different rooms of the house, tending to Jayden's leg, picking up garbage when she saw it, and all the other Rangers were sitting on their asses playing video games, reading a book, goofing off with their Samuraizers, or watching the gold Ranger goof off with his Samuraizer. Only Jayden had a good reason for sitting on his butt all day, but even he was starting to irritate Mia.

Her frustration only grew as she walked by the common room and heard her fiancé speaking to Mike.

"Just sweep it under the rug for now. What she doesn't know won't kill her."

A growl rumbled in the back of the throat as she stormed into the kitchen and dropped the dirty dishes in the sink. There was another pile of dishes on the counter waiting to be washed, but she ignored it. There was no way she would be doing dishes for the third night in a row.

She dumped the sweaty towels on the kitchen table and marched into the common room. She glared at Kevin.

"Can I have a word with you, _dear,_" if looks could kill, Kevin wouldn't have lived to hear the end of that sentence. He nodded his head, put his book down and followed his fiancée to the kitchen.

As he walked away, he and Mia heard Mike giggling.

"Someone's in trouble."

In the blink of an eye Mia spun around, shooting her deadly look at Mike.

"Excuse me?"

"Uh…"

"Someone's going to be in trouble, all right," Mia snapped. She pointed to Mike's bedroom. "Get your butt in your room and pick up all the clothes from your floor. I want your half and Emily's half of the room to shine by the time I'm done talking with Kevin, do you understand me?"

Mike saluted the pink Ranger, "Yes mam!" he shot off towards his bedroom to follow his orders before he really pissed Mia off.

Over in the corner, Emily and Antonio were chuckling. Mia turned to them.

"Well?" she asked them. "Are your butts glues to your seats or can you two get up?"

"But we didn't…"

"Bedrooms, now!" Mia shouted. Emily and Antonio raced off to their rooms, their tails between their legs. Mia huffed loudly, turned back to the kitchen and pulled Kevin with her. She slammed the kitchen door shut and pointed to the dirty dishes, towels and the garbage. "This place is a disaster."

"What was that all about?" Kevin pointed over his shoulder to the common room. "I've never seen the three of them so terrified in my life!"

"Are you not listening?" Mia glared at her fiancé. "This place is a disaster."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not blind," Kevin nodded. "Mentor's not due home for another twenty-four hours. We'll have it clean by the time he gets back, no sweat."

Mia blinked repeatedly as she stared at her disciplined, structured, organised fiancé.

"Are you kidding me?"

"We live in a house with three other guys and a teenager. This place is going to look like a dump from time to time. I've learned to accept that. It's actually not that bad when…"

"Not that bad?" Mia reached into the pile of dirty dishes and pulled out a moulded piece of bread. She waved it in Kevin's face, "I bought this yesterday! It's already growing something!"

"Okay, that's bad… but…"

Mia pinched the bridge of her nose, "Look, Kevin, we can't live like this. I can't live like this. I cleaned this kitchen this morning and it's already got three years worth of dishes waiting to be cleaned."

"I think you're exaggerating…"

"I did the laundry yesterday and today we have a carpet of clothing going from the laundry room to the dojo and the bedrooms."

"It's a long walk after training…"

"And the common room looks like a bomb went off. Do I want to ask what Mike stashed under the carpet? What about all the bags of chips on the table, or the soda bottles on the floor?"

"I think you need to take a nap," Kevin reached out to Mia but she swatted his hand away and glared angrily at him.

"You think I need a nap? You _think_ I need a nap? For the past 72 hours I've been picking up after you and the other Rangers, taking care of Jayden, cleaning the house, and do you know what kind of thanks I get?"

"Appreciation for a job well done?"

"If only!" Mia shouted. "I am going for that nap, Kevin. I'm going to our room, I'm going to lie down, and when I wake up this place is going to be spotless. If not, I'm coming after you."

"Okay, okay," Kevin gently pushed his bride-to-be out of the kitchen, "I'll get the others in order. We'll clean up, I promise."

-Samurai-

"Alright men… and Emily, we've let this get away from us for too long," Kevin stated as he paced before Mike, Antonio and Emily with a broom, a mop and a bucket of water in his hands. He pointed to the kitchen counter, "Dishes need to be done, chores need to be completed and someone needs to get the smell of sweat out of all our clothes. Mia's not happy with how lazy you've all been."

"Us?" Mike frowned. "You're just as guilty as the rest of us."

"No matter," Kevin held the mop and bucket out for Mike to take, "You're going to scrub these floors. I want them to be so clean that I can see myself when I look down."

"Antonio's the shine guy," Mike tried to pass the mop and bucket off to Antonio but Kevin growled. Mike clutched the mop to his chest, "Uh, but I'll do it. Anything for Momma Pink."

"That's the spirit," Kevin nodded. He then looked at Antonio and pointed to the dishes, "That… mess is your responsibility. The dishes need to be washed, dried and put away properly before Mia wakes up."

"Got it, Colonel," Antonio saluted and he walked to the sink and grabbed the sponge.

Kevin looked at Emily, "You're going to pick up all the clothes and towels from the floor and stuff them in the laundry machine. When everything's washed, the towels need to be put away and the clothes need to be folded."

"I hate folding laundry…"

"Would you rather take out the trash and dust every inch of the house?"

One look at the overflowed kitchen garbage and Emily fell in love with folding clothes. She picked up the towels from the counter and raced to the laundry room to get them cleaned. Kevin smirked and clapped his hands.

"Alright, Mia promised not to come out of her room until six. We've got five hours to get this place clean."

-Samurai-

"Okay, what is that?" Antonio held up a plate with what appeared to be a light blue-green jelly smeared all over the middle. Mike looked up as he mopped the floor and shrugged.

"Dude, I have no clue, just wash it off."

"That's the fourth one. Who's eating this stuff?" Antonio dumped the plate in the soapy water and scrubbed it clean, like he had been doing with all the other dishes for the past couple of hours. When it was clean he dried it off and put it away. He turned to the pile of dirty dishes and realised it was all gone. A smile crossed his lips and he let out a huge sigh of relief. "Finally done!"

Suddenly he felt something slam repeatedly into his feet. He looked down and saw Mike hitting him with the mop.

"Move, move, move" the green Ranger cried eagerly, "That's the last spot! Off, off, off!"

Antonio hopped up on the counter and Mike mopped up the last section of the kitchen floor. When he was done he looked at all his hard work and leaned against the mop. The floor was shining and he was proud.

"There. Done. No one walk on the floor until it's dry."

"Antonio, Mike! All your clothes are washed, folded and… AHH!"

The gold and green Rangers winced and turned away when Emily walked into the kitchen and slipped on the wet floor. She landed on her back staring up at the ceiling.

"Has it always had spots?" she asked. Mike and Antonio were practically skating across the wet floor to help her up.

"Em, you okay?" Mike pulled her to her feet and he and Antonio walked her to the chairs. She and Antonio took a seat while Mike cleaned up the prints they had left from walking (and slipping) on his clean floor.

"I'm fine," Emily nodded, rubbing the back of her head. "You two can put your laundry away. Everything's folded and on your beds."

"Thanks," Antonio smiled.

Kevin walked into the room, finally done cleaning the rest of the house. He looked at the kitchen, seeing it was spotless and smiled.

"Well, that didn't take as long as expected. We've still got three hours before Mia shows her face."

"Dude, I am never making a mess again," Mike vowed, taking a seat at the table, careful not to dirty his floor. Kevin did the same. "Props to Mia for doing all of that by herself for three days."

"And without our help," Emily added. "I feel bad for making her do all the work. If she had just asked…"

"She shouldn't have to ask," Kevin said. "This was our mess. Mia always cleans up after herself. The house shouldn't have gotten this bad."

"I'm surprised you let it get this bad," Mike chuckled. "You always used to bag on me when I left a sock on the floor."

"What can I say?" Kevin shrugged, "You're rubbing off on me."

"Is that good or bad?" Antonio smirked.

"We should make it up to Mia," Emily suggested. "I'm tired and the washing machine did all the work for me. I can't imagine how tired she is after doing all our jobs three days straight."

"What are you proposing?" Kevin asked the youngest Samurai. Emily smiled.

-Samurai-

"I'm not going out there. I'm not going out there…" Mia muttered. Her eyes were screwed shut and her head was buried under her blankets. It was 5:59 PM and she knew she was going to have to step out into the Shiba house and face the disaster that was her teammates. She doubted the house was clean. She wanted to believe in them, but she had a bad feeling in her stomach.

There was a knock on the door and she groaned, assuming it was Kevin coming in to ask for a little more time, which she would grant him happily; anything to avoid stepping into the disaster zone.

But she heard several feet shuffling and the smell of grilled fish, steamed vegetables and warm brownies filled the room. Completely baffled, Mia threw the blankets off.

"Surprise," Kevin smiled and placed a tray on Mia's lap once she sat up. Mia looked down at the tray and saw her fiancé and friends had prepared her a dinner in bed.

"It's all homemade and fresh," Antonio promised. "We cleaned the house and had a few hours to kill. I caught the fish a couple of hours ago and fried it, Kevin did the vegetables and Mike and Emily made you a special brownie."

"With pink icing!" Emily giggled, pointing to the brownie.

"And don't worry, we washed the dishes and put them away after making this meal," Mike assured Mia. "I promise, this house is spotless."

"I'll have to see for myself," Mia smiled, "but dinner looks delicious. Thanks guys."

"No problem," Antonio, Emily and Mike started to shuffle out so Mia could eat her dinner in peace and they could get started on their own meals.

Kevin took a seat next to Mia in his bed and placed his arms around her shoulders before letting his head rest on the side of hers.

"I don't know how you do it," he said. "I'm exhausted, and I only did a quarter of the work you did."

"Now you see why I was so pissed," Mia nodded. "I'm just glad I don't cook."

She offered her plate to Kevin, letting him take a bite, but he shook his head.

"No, Mia, it's your dinner. You enjoy it."

"You worked hard, I know you did. Just take a bite," Mia smiled. Kevin laughed.

"If I have to," he cut a small piece of her fish and ate it happily. "Mm, this is good."

"Made with love," Mia nodded.

"So are the vegetables," Kevin pointed to his half of the dinner. Mia stabbed a piece of broccoli and held it to his mouth. Kevin ate it and chuckled.

"Now the brownie," he teased. Mia shook her head and held her fork dangerously close to his face.

"My brownie. Don't touch if you want to live."

"Brownie's all yours," he held his hands up and away from her plate of food. Mia smiled rolled her eyes.

"Fine, you can have a little bit," she sighed. "But only the icing. After today I need all the chocolate I can get."

Kevin took a bite of the pink icing with his finger and stuck his finger in his mouth. Mia watched him with a grin on her face before leaning into him happily.

"Thanks for doing that."

"Stealing your brownie? Anytime."

"Letting me go all psycho house wife," Mia laughed.

"Antonio, Emily and Mike called it O.W.M.D: Over-Worked Mom Disorder."

"Still, thanks for taking over. If I slipped on one more sock I think I would have murdered one of those kids."

"It's fine. Really, it shouldn't have happened. We all promised to clean up after ourselves from now on. There's no reason why you should be doing it for us. We're all adults."

"More or less," Mia chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder."

Kevin rolled his eyes playfully and sat with his fiancée as she ate her dinner. When she was finished, he quickly offered to take her dishes to the kitchen to wash them. Mia shook her head and placed the tray on the floor by the bed.

"I think these can wait a little while, don't you?" Mia wrapped her arms around Kevin's neck and pulled him in closer. Kevin smirked.

"I think they can."

-Samurai-

Right outside Kevin and Mia's bedroom Mike, Emily and Antonio were standing with their ears pressed against the door, curious as to what was taking Kevin so long to come out and help them with their dinner. He had promised to give them all some money to buy a pizza.

"What do you think is going on?" Emily whispered, keeping her voice low so Kevin and Mia wouldn't hear her. Mike looked down at her.

"Do you want to know?"

"I don't think we're getting that pizza anytime soon," Antonio sighed, looking down at both his teammates.

"What are you three doing?"

Mike, Emily and Antonio pulled away from the door and straightened out when they heard a voice coming from behind them. They turned around to see Jayden was out of bed.

"Uh…" they all stammered. Jayden shook his head.

"I get the feeling I don't want to know."

"Are you supposed to be in bed?" Antonio asked. "Your leg…"

"Is fine," Jayden promised. "I was just coming out to see if you guys needed a hand with dinner."

Mike, Emily and Antonio exchanged a look and they all nodded before holding out their hands.

"We need pizza money," they told Jayden. "Kevin promised, but he's obviously occupied."

"I… uh…" Jayden frowned.

"We'll bring you back a few slices," Emily promised, using her cutest puppy face to her advantage. Jayden sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet and handed his three teammates enough money for a pizza.

"Thanks, Jay!" Mike called, racing out with the others. Jayden chuckled and rolled his eyes before looking around the hallway and down into the common room. He smiled.

"Wow, I've never seen this house so clean. And here I was thinking it would be a disaster while Mentor was away."


End file.
